Adani Media Networks has indirectly acquired a 29.12% stake in NDTV. According to NDTV, the acquisition happened “without any discussion with founder-promoters Radhika and Prannoy Roy” indicating that this could be a hostile takeover. Why it matters: Adani Group’s indirect acquisition of NDTV makes it the single largest shareholder. NDTV will be yet another organisation under the purview of a big corporation. Such acquisitions do cast concerns on the editorial independence of news organisations. A little context: NDTV is a publicly traded news company whose products include three broadcast channels (NDTV 24x7 (English), NDTV India (Hindi), NDTV Profit) and a digital website As of June 30, 2022, Radhika and Prannoy Roy owned 61.4% of the total NDTV shares. Out of which Prannoy owns 15.94%, Radhika owns 16.32% and RRPR (a company owned by Prannoy and Radhika) owns 29.18%. The remaining 38.55% shares belong to the public Chain of events: The promoters of NDTV took a loan of Rs 540 cr from Indiabulls Financial Services. We are not sure about the date of this. To repay that loan, another loan of Rs 375 cr was taken from ICICI bank. The loan from ICICI bank was repaid in 2009 by taking another loan of Rs 350 cr from Vishvapradhan Commercial Private Limited (VCPL). This is where things get interesting. This was an unsecured loan (loan without collateral) and given without any interest payment. A little unusual, right? Was VCPL giving the loan for free? No. VCPL would get a convertible warrant which…
